Last weekend in Halifax at their biannual national convention, the Liberal Party voted yes to a resolution for consensual sex work decriminalisation. The resolution was presented by the party’s youth caucus, the Young Liberals of Canada, and is part of several resolutions that push for a more progressive Liberal Party. The Liberal Party are currently the largest party in Canadian government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Trudeau.

Criminalisation of sex work is an expression of stigma against sex workers and is opposed by sex workers and sex workers’ rights organisations around the world. In South Africa, the Sisonke Sex Workers’ Movement and Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) have continued to advocate for the full decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa, by raising public awareness of the human rights violations suffered by sex workers under the current outdated legal framework.

Three months ago, attorney and Columbian legislator Clara Leticia Rojas González (known as Clara Rojas), began campaigning for new legislation which would fine people who pay for sex with up to $23,000,000 Colombian pesos (around $7,500 US dollars). This proposal has been strongly condemned by Colombian sex workers, activists and academics.

Forty-four Ugandan sex workers were arrested on 14 July, 2017 in Abayita, at a crisis meeting organised in response to a series of brutal murders in the Abayita, Katabi, Nkumba and Nansana areas of Uganda. A report by the Uganda Minister of Internal Affairs indicates that at least 21 women were found brutally murdered between 3 May and 4 September of this year. Many of these women were raped before being killed and had sticks inserted into their genitals. The victims were usually dumped in deserted locations close to their places of residence. Inspector General of the Uganda Police Force Kale Kayihura has reported that the majority of the victims were sex workers.